Squadcast Summary (2015-04-11) - Arrangement Of S.H.I.E.L.Ds Edition!

[BudgetHedgehog]

Hello everyone and here's the Squadcast Summary for this week!

Sorry for spelling mistakes, I'm a terrible transcriber. I try and clarify what is an actual quote from Max (if it's wrapped in "quotation marks", it's the best transcript of an official Squad member you'll find on the web), and what is a summary from myself as I'm aware I switch between the two with 0 notice. When I say 'Squad', I mean 'the relevant people who are currently developing the game'.

As always, this is just a transcript of an off the cuff vlog of a non-native english speaker - some details may change or be entirely incorrect.

Squadcast Summary for 2015-04-11 - Watch it here!

"You know, it generally works better if I turn my mic on..."

The start was mainly setting up the current mission - capturing an asteroid for an eventual space station. Also, stay tuned for a sneak preview of fairings..

Axial tilt for planets - last time they tried it, Unity didn't really like so it's something they seriously have to consider.

There are currently no dedicated heatshield parts, but it's apparently pretty easy to config-bash say, the fairing parts, to act as one. Hopefully all players like the aero and heat - the default settings are apparently enough to overheat and break up a spaceplane/Shuttle re-entry (though that could be because Max isn't terribly good at this game..). It's looking pretty good, way more advanced than current stock aero (not that that is difficult). It even affects EVA kerbals.

There's no real clarification from Squad about kerbals and their lives/biology because they prefer each player to have their own canon and having a set backstory would ruin that.

Tier 0 buildings (the Barn) - you recall they're being redesigned to a higher standard? Well, it's such a big redesign that, not 100% sure but, it maaaaay be that they don't appear in 1.0. If that's the case, they'll be in the update after 1.0 for sure.

1.0 preview videos when? When they're done

Fun fact: Squad sometimes actually uses Danny2462's videos for bugfixing. If they can replicate the steps and consider it severe enough, they will patch it. But sometimes, they just think 'oh, attaching 2 claws to a kerbal breaks the universe? How about you just don't do that..'

Squad has patched a whole ton of bugs and RAM leaks - "KSP is behaving waaahaahaaay better now". No 64bit yet though, not yet.

Another fun fact - Squad have fixed the flag planting animation so it doesn't clip through their helmet anymore. Good stuff. Anyway, fairings!

This is probe to get some science and at the same time, look at the general mineral contents of the planet to check for ore. Gives a rough sense of scale for the clamshell scanner. Also, check the cursor! Just one of many tiny tweaks in 1.0. So yeah, how do we launch this in the new aero? Well, we could launch it as-is, but the airflow around it would be awful and likely tear things off, so let's put a fairing round it:

First off, this is an awful, inefficient, and expensive example of 1.0 stock fairings. The way you build them is with your mouse - click on fairing base, it follows the mouse around. Click to make an 'anchor', move the mouse to somewhere else, click again to anchor again etc.It's like join the dots, but you decide on where the dots are. But wait, weren't the fairings parts? How can I fiddle with the insides after the fairings are set?

Boom. From anchor to anchor is a part and by mousing over the fairing, the parts will separate like shown to allow you to change parts inside of it. Interstage fairings are a thing - Squad is giving you a tool, up to you how to use and abuse them. They fully expect players to come up with some unexpected and creative use for these procedural parts they hadn't anticipated.

Want more of this kind of thing? Keep an eye out for teasers released soon^TM

So that's it from Max and another episode of Squadcast. I'm Owksp and you're welcome.

P.S. As with last week, the amount of rep I get from these posts can be overwhelming, so go find your favourite forum goer, be it a modder, builder, moderator, whoever and rep them as well. They deserve some love too, thank you.

Edited April 11, 2015 by ObsessedWithKSP
images

[Bill Phil]

Interesting fairings.

Will they always have those stripes...?

Thanks for the summary!

[federicoaa]

I was posting about the fairings since there were like 20 minutes without posts here, but got ninjad by you

[Motokid600]

So... How does Squad's fairing system differ from Procedural Fairings in terms of adjustability? I have an idea, but it seems like a completely different system. One that is actually far superior then PF.

If what I understand is correct I can make multi sectioned fairings that can be individually jettisoned? Because unfortunately with PF the entire fairing you create has to go.

This will be great for a Saturn V for instance. The LEM sits down inside the S-IVB a ways and is extracted. You can achieve the look with PF, but when you decouple it the entire LEM is exposed. Where as now you can just have the upper fairings/pedals decouple and keep the one that holds the LEM.

Atleast I hope that's the case.

[BudgetHedgehog]

Will they always have those stripes...?!

No idea, wasn't mentioned. I hope not or the texture's moddable - personally, I think they're not the best looking parts around. Squad would be wise to look at blackhearts or Vens pFairings texture, they lok much nicer.

I was posting about the fairings since there were like 20 minutes without posts here, but got ninjad by you

Yeah, it takes a few minutes to turn my hastily typed shorthand into actual readable sentence

[Taki117]

So... How does Squad's fairing system differ from Procedural Fairings in terms of adjustability? I have an idea, but it seems like a completely different system. One that is actually far superior then PF.

If what I understand is correct I can make multi sectioned fairings that can be individually jettisoned? Because unfortunately with PF the entire fairing you create has to go.

This will be great for a Saturn V for instance. The LEM sits down inside the S-IVB a ways and is extracted. You can achieve the look with PF, but when you decouple it the entire LEM is exposed. Where as now you can just have the upper fairings/pedals decouple and keep the one that holds the LEM.

Atleast I hope that's the case.

I would assume so, create a faring that is just the base ring, then the cone. The cone jettisons while the base ring stays in place.

[NFUN]

Aww, this isn't possible (for long) anymore:

[GusTurbo]

Cool! I'm still not sure I understand how fairings will work, but I'm excited to see something about them!

[regex]

Looking pretty cool. Thanks for compiling the notes, I completely forgot about Squadcast today.

[Motokid600]

Excellent. Now I'm just crossing my fingers on a secret partnership with Rbray to incorporate Environmental Visual Enhancements.

That needs to happen. The game needs more eye candy before release.

Edited April 11, 2015 by Motokid600

[FishInferno]

Honestly I'm not that happy with the look of the new fairings. They look too.. artificial, I guess. SQUAD needs to look at KW's Fairings, and I really hope we can have rounded noses for them as well as cones.

[ZodiusInfuser]

Tier 0 buildings (the Barn) - you recall they're being redesigned to a higher standard? Well, it's such a big redesign that, not 100% sure but, it maaaaay be that they don't appear in 1.0. If that's the case, they'll be in the update after 1.0 for sure.

That sounds to me like squad doesn't understand that a released game is meant to be feature complete. If they're skipping this to try and push 1.0 out then that suggests that there needs to be a 0.95 before it.

I'll reserve judgement on the fairings, but I really hope there's the option to add curved fairing tips.

[Chezburgar7300]

Excellent. Now I'm just crossing my fingers on a secret partnership with Rbray to incorporate Environmental Visual Enhancements.

That needs to happen. The game needs more eye candy before release.

My bet is that they will have an update (within 3 updates after release) that will include a ton of visual tweaks and additions. They know the game isn't that pretty. They know.

The thing that annoys me the most is the Sun actually. I have no idea why.

[Nemrav]

I really think Kerbals are the one thing re-entry heat shouldn't work on... it stops my last ditch head landing maneuvers

looking good, hopefully we can transition the fairing sizes more smoothly..

[Randazzo]

So heat damage is being added, but there are no heatshield parts? That seems a touch shortsighted.

So... How does Squad's fairing system differ from Procedural Fairings in terms of adjustability? I have an idea, but it seems like a completely different system. One that is actually far superior then PF.

If what I understand is correct I can make multi sectioned fairings that can be individually jettisoned? Because unfortunately with PF the entire fairing you create has to go.

This will be great for a Saturn V for instance. The LEM sits down inside the S-IVB a ways and is extracted. You can achieve the look with PF, but when you decouple it the entire LEM is exposed. Where as now you can just have the upper fairings/pedals decouple and keep the one that holds the LEM.

Atleast I hope that's the case.

Use the fairings under the structural tab instead of the aerodynamic tab. The structural fairings don't jettison.

[GusTurbo]

So... How does Squad's fairing system differ from Procedural Fairings in terms of adjustability? I have an idea, but it seems like a completely different system. One that is actually far superior then PF.

If what I understand is correct I can make multi sectioned fairings that can be individually jettisoned? Because unfortunately with PF the entire fairing you create has to go.

This will be great for a Saturn V for instance. The LEM sits down inside the S-IVB a ways and is extracted. You can achieve the look with PF, but when you decouple it the entire LEM is exposed. Where as now you can just have the upper fairings/pedals decouple and keep the one that holds the LEM.

Atleast I hope that's the case.

Actually, if you get creative with Procedural Fairings, you can make it so the lower part of the LM is still covered when you jettison the petals.

I did it like this:

Edited April 11, 2015 by GusTurbo

[forenci]

Hmm. Curious to see if it's possible to adjust the fairings. I'm not a fan of conic fairings. Much prefer the rounded/egg-shaped.

[Alshain]

My bet is that they will have an update (within 3 updates after release) that will include a ton of visual tweaks and additions. They know the game isn't that pretty. They know.

The thing that annoys me the most is the Sun actually. I have no idea why.

I wouldn't expect it before Unity 5. The "eye candy" is one thing that Unity 5 will definitely help on. I wouldn't be surprised if Squad has purposely delayed stuff like this to avoid re-writing it all.

[BudgetHedgehog]

So heat damage is being added, but there are no heatshield parts? That seems a touch shortsighted.

Some current parts will have dedicated heatshield properties built in via config.

[Alshain]

So heat damage is being added, but there are no heatshield parts? That seems a touch shortsighted.

Heat shields are not required if you come in shallow enough. You just can't re-enter at a 90 degree angle to Kerbin.

[Robotengineer]

Honestly I'm not that happy with the look of the new fairings. They look too.. artificial, I guess. SQUAD needs to look at KW's Fairings, and I really hope we can have rounded noses for them as well as cones.

I'm not that impressed with them either. This Squadcast didn't improve my opinion of 1.0, if anything, it decreased it. Good summary though ObsessedWithKSP!

[GusTurbo]

Some current parts will have dedicated heatshield properties built in via config.

And the 3 kerbal pod looks like it's had its heatshield sawed off!

Edited April 11, 2015 by GusTurbo

[regex]

I wouldn't expect it before Unity 5. The "eye candy" is one thing that Unity 5 will definitely help on. I wouldn't be surprised if Squad has purposely delayed stuff like this to avoid re-writing it all.

I wouldn't be surprised if Squad hasn't spared one brain-cell regarding the matter and will get to it if it's convenient and makes sense for their short-term plans. Squad doesn't seem to plan that far ahead.

[jlo96]

1.0 isn't the final update, yo. Also, modding is a thing.

@GusTurbo: It is kind of weird how they specifically rendered the mounting for the heatshield, but not the shield

[cantab]

I hope there's some sort of snapping when building the fairings. If it's literally you click and the exact pixel is used to define the fairing shape then they will basically be non-reproducible. I don't think that would be great.